Spielberg, Austria 13 August 2017: Aspar Mahindra team rider Albert Arenas and CIP team rider Marco Bezzecchi paid the price of ultra-close combat in a huge multi-bike battle for championship points in today’s Austrian GP, crashing out together on the last of 23 laps of the scenic 4.318-km Red Bull Ring circuit.

The weather is looking up at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, and that is a good thing. First of all, it provided a fascinating day of practice and qualifying, with more than a few surprises and plenty of data to chew over. But secondly, and far more importantly, it meant that riders were out on track riding, and returning to the pits safely after doing so. If the weather had turned, and rain had fallen, that might not have been the case.

The reason for that is simple. The Red Bull Ring is not safe in the wet. That was the consensus of the riders at Friday night's Safety Commission. It is not particularly safe in the dry either, but in the wet, it is so bad that everyone said they would not ride if it rained. "Everybody yesterday in the Safety Commission said they would not ride in the wet," Aleix Espargaro said.

It was a point which Cal Crutchlow had made on Thursday, even before practice began. He reiterated it on Saturday. "If it rains I ain’t riding," he told the media. I have no interest, because there are barriers everywhere. As you saw, everyone was crashing in a complete straight line and they were going to the left at a right hand corner. It was just ridiculous. Until they move the barriers back, I have no interest to ride here in the wet."

The distinct lack of clouds must have been a joyful sight for the paddock, especially the part than needed to sample the track for fourty minutes. With the much nicer conditions, the riders were fast to significantly improve their Friday times.

Already owning the fastest lap around the Ring, championship leader Joan Mir set his sights on improving that record and started by setting himself up at the top of the timesheets. The Leopard rider got close to his pole record on several occasions but his exuberance over white lines saw some of those times cancelled. While the second-place roulette kept moving throughout the session, the Spaniard’s time was rarely challenged.

The rain that soaked the end of FP1 and caused a bowling session mid-Moto2 had stopped by the time the lightweight class reconvened for afternoon practice. With rain tyres on a drying track, half the grid decided to bide their time and wait for drier times, the likes of Mir, Ramirez, Fenati or the RBA duo only joining with a dry setup in the final fifteen minutes.

Aron Canet lit up the timesheets in the final five-minute dash in much improved conditions, before coming across a rain shower in turn three. That settled the hierarchy with three minutes remaining of the session, the young Spaniard keeping top position by over three tenths of a second.

With very photogenic thunder gracing Spielberg with its presence the previous day, the lightweight class was lucky to have seen a nearly dry piece of tarmac waiting for them on Friday morning.

Championship leader Joan Mir decided to honour the track of his first world championship success by setting camp at the top of the timesheets early in the session and waiting for his rivals to catch up. Bo Bendsneyder and Enea Bastianini got their brief time in the sun but then Mir stroke back to be the first rider of the morning into the 1:37s and almost half a second faster than his colleagues, despite his enthusiasm seeing several of his laps cancelled for exuberant use of track limits.